WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
March 26th 2006
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“What is Grace?”
Ephesians 2:1-10
Of all the sermons I have ever prepared to deliver this sermon on grace is one of the most difficult. How is that for ironic? Grace, a cornerstone of our faith, had become too difficult to preach. If anything, grace should be the easiest. After all, the simple truth is that grace is all about God’s love for us. And, God’s love cannot be earned - it is freely given. So what is so difficult about this? Despite knowing all this and more, I have this gnawing feeling that all is not well with our understanding of grace.
In order to deal with this feeling, I decided not to deal with the feeling and looked for an answer in a book. I then returned to my seminary class notes and worked my way back through many of the required reading lists. This exercise did little to deal with that gnawing feeling. However, it did convince me that we ought to spend a few moments dissecting the famous reformed declaration that “we are justified by grace through faith.”
To be justified means that we are no longer alienated from God and one another. This takes place, as we understand it, through the actions of God and not the actions of human beings. However, this doctrine has been grossly misinterpreted. It been used to paint God as angry and ‘out to get us.’ So, it follows that, the only way to be saved from God’s anger is to be justified. This action of justification then happens when God sacrificed Jesus. In other words, our lives are spared through the process of divine child abuse. This line of reason, or lack thereof, has taken an important truth and so distorted it, that it may be beyond redemption. However, I believe there is something of value worth reclaiming.
The idea that justification of human beings is necessary has nothing to do with quenching God’s thirst for vengance. The idea that justification of human beings is necessary is built upon the premise that human beings are sinful. Sin is not something that most of us like to talk about. After all, we generally like to think we are nice people, prone to mistakes but sin just overstates the case. However, our discomfort with sin, I believe, has more to do with a limited understanding of sin.
There is no doubt that sin involves those actions for which we are personally responsible. However sin also includes more than just our personal actions. Sin is about our state of being. In order to better grasp this concept we need to spend a few moments unpacking the reality of Sin.
Sin as a state of being can best be understood as encompassing three concepts. 1) Alienation from God and from one another. 2) Anxiety as the basis for human existence, and 3) Contempt for God and neighbor. By taking each one of these concepts and connecting them with real world examples we may reach a better understanding of how sin is at work in the world. The following examples are not perfect but do provide a starting point for better understanding. And most importantly it may help our own discernment and work in the world.
1) Alienation from God and one another: I believe that alienation from one another is a symptom of our alienation from God. When we are alienated, estranged or are too much distance from other people we are no longer in relationship. When this happens it becomes quite easy to demonize them. A good example of this is the use of the term “welfare mother.” This racially coded language has allowed large numbers of people unaware of the realities of trying to live at or below the poverty line to assume that everyone on welfare is black and ‘cheating the system.’ The distance from or alienation from the growing numbers of poor people in our society allows more comfortable folks to feel better when we make decisions which will harm the most vulnerable in society. This one example of alienation not only allows for the continuation of coded racist language to affect national politics it also makes life more difficult for the those at the bottom of the economic ladder. This ongoing situation, while bigger than our individual actions, is known theologically as sin.
2) Anxiety as the basis for human existence: Living in a “post 9/11” makes it easier to talk about anxiety. Living with the constant reminders that we are at war and could be attacked at any minute feeds our already anxious existence. Most promises to trust our authorities figures, who know best seem to do little to curb the anxious lives we live. Instead, our anxiety has actually brought to the surface some of the worst in human behavior. Anxiety has allowed our society to find ways to makes excuses for the dehumanizing practice of torture with the belief it will make the world a safer place. While there may be well developed rationale for this common practice, it is known theologically as sin.
3) Contempt for God and neighbor: Contempt for God is most evident in our treatment of neighbor. This sort of contempt can take all sorts of forms. The key is to figure out who is our neighbor. Fortunately, Jesus answered this question fairly clearly… All people are our neighbors. So, if all people are our neighbors then this actually includes some folks we may not like. The hard reality is that the contempt we feel towards our enemies is really contempt for God. Despite the teachings of Jesus this sort of talk is usually dismissed as not dealing with the “real world.” Yet, despite the debates about ‘real world’ issues simply obscures the fact that it is theologically known as sin. These very few examples show the pervasive nature of sin in our world.
Faced with these realities it can seem rather disheartening. If we are really part of this world of sin what shall we do? Fortunately, we have this little doctrine know as grace which means even if we are directly responsible for the few sins mentioned above we do not have to worry. We simply have to believe and all is well. So as a result nothing has to change. So sin boldly, in the words of Luther, and then just believe you are saved and your actions do not matter.
If you are anything like me there is something deeply troubling about all of this. This is precisely where my deep uneasiness about the doctrine of grace is most powerfully known. Fortunately, we are not alone. There is at least one reformed theologian who was troubled in the same way. His name was Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
In his book Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer struggles with the doctrine of grace. Concerned about the misuse of this doctrine, he said that when grace becomes only “a doctrine, a principle, a system’… or “an intellectual assent” or “(when) grace alone does everything…so everything can remain as it was before” we are no longer talking about the grace of God. Bonhoeffer called this distortion of grace, cheap grace.
This sort of grace, cheap grace, makes no claims upon ones life. In other words, it is the sort of grace which causes us to make no changes as a result of Jesus’ life. Cheap grace has no need for disciples and never asks for any repentance. God has done everything so no changes are needed only that we believe it to be true. To emphasize this point Bonhoeffer adds this confession: “We confess that, although our Church is orthodox as far as her doctrine of grace is concerned, we are no longer sure that we are members of a Church which follows its Lord.”
For Bonhoeffer, grace demands discipleship. It is the belief that an encounter with grace would compel you to abandon all and follow Jesus. During his life, Jesus invited many people to leave everything and follow. The earliest disciples were the ones who sought each day to practice the call to follow Jesus. Bonhoeffer went so far as to say that: “the only person who has the right to say they are justified by grace is the one who has left all to follow (Jesus).”
While this may sound like Bonhoeffer was a proponent of works righteousness it would be a misunderstanding of his message. This call to Discipleship was nothing more than a response to grace not as a way for one to earn grace. For Bonhoeffer the simple truth was that Jesus’ love changed things. His concern is that the church was no longer practicing or preaching this simple message. It is true that one cannot have an encounter with the embodiment of God’s grace and live life in the same way again.
It is true that God loves all people. We believe that God’s grace is abundant. The difficulty comes with the messengers. If the bearers of this great good news use it simply as a ‘get out of hell’ free card and do not seek to live differently then the rest of the world addicted to violence and death, where is the good news? In what way does this give witness to the grace of God?
These questions and challenges are not meant to place guilt upon anyone. Instead it is a call for us all to look closely at our lives and our confessional statements and see if we are seeking to live out our beliefs. If we believe in the radically inclusive grace and love of God, then our lives should reflect this. May God grant us the grace, as individuals and as a community, to be living witnesses to this truth. Amen.
